"Tell Me Tuesday"....

Above is my little "supply" caddy I keep close by my sewing machine. I made this by covering this tin bucket with wrapping paper. You could cover any cute shaped container that you might find the shape appealing, but not too pleasing to the eye. You could also use tissue paper to cover it with. I just used a modge podge type glue and then sprayed a thin coat of clear protect coat. You could also paint on a clear acrylic water based protectant as well. I don't think I would use a hot glue gun...you need the paper to lay as flat as possible. I think if your container has a little ridge at the top like this one it would help your paper stay on longer and withstand alot of use. I have also used various pretty papers to slid down inside glass jars to hide undesirable contents and to just make my storage containers look nicer on my shelves. If your glass jar has a indented neck..tie a ribbon around it too after adding your paper inside.

I have finished hand quilting my 20 something yr. old quilt found in the garage this summer on this wonderful little quilt frame DH built for me. Took some getting used to but now I'm hookin' butt on this! Next in line is the baby quilt....it just barely fits!

I weaseled out a little spot over by my big window. The light is perfect....I can look out to my left and watch and see the birds.....and to my right I can see across the room to the TV. This little frame is sooo light I can scoot it around anywhere I want it. Thanks DH!!!

Now...........for our Tell Me or Tell All question for this Tuesday. When is the last time you wore a bathing suit in public??? I'll go first....I guess sometime in this last year..BUT...NOT without a cover-up. I have this thin and light weight pink little sundress with skinny spaghetti type straps, it comes above the knee. I have had others tease me about looking like a "round" ballerina. My DH surprised me with a cruise for Christmas about 3 yrs. ago and I did walk to the edge of the ships pool without my cover up. I thought...what the hay!....these people don't know me and I will never see them again....so let them gawk and possible make fun!!!

And many many thanks to everyone's great suggestions for sore quilting fingers. I have googled and looked up several of these and I never knew there were such wonderful items to use. I think I am going to order several and see what works best!

Quietly Quilting...

Another little cottage.....I love these !!!

Nothing much going on here. I have just been quietly hand quilting away. I just about have my 25 yr. old first quilt finished. Maybe I will get it finished today....maybe.....my fingers are sooo sore though. Two fingers on my left hand are pricked to death. DH brought me in a bottle of liquid bandage yesterday, but it doesn't help much. Darn, I may have to sew something today instead of quilt, give my fingers a chance to heal up some.

I have been forgetting to share a good website with you....http://womentowomen.com/....great medical for any and all things pertaining to women. I refer to this site often. You should check it out.

I'm going to go see if my fingers can tolerate some hand quilting today!

"Tell Me Tuesday"....

First all, I want to show you another little cottage . Isn't it sooo cute! This design is the original design of Mr. Brown Dirt. Yes, that's right....I sewed it up just like he wanted it. He picked and chose where and what fabrics he wanted. Not bad for Mr. farmer man!!

As for "Tell Me Tuesday"....here is the question......What Kind of Blogger Are You??? Tell me or Tell all.....do you set rules for yourself? Do you have a list of favorites and you don't sway from that? Are you the kind that leaves a comment on EVERY blog you visit or are you the one who sloops and lurks around behind the scenes and just takes it all in in private? Give us some insight into your world of blogging! ( well, I guess if you are one that sloops and lurks you won't be sharing your blogging habits with us..will you? ) I'll go first........I tend to get stuck going to my same ole list. No offense to my regulars, but we become comfy in the same old routine and forget to venture out away from that. I have really tried this week to add some new life into my blog list. Joan over at Quilting On A Budget has some great tips! I enjoyed Laurie Taylor at The Wooden Spool. You should also check out Rhonda at Ravelly 1 Quiltz Blog. Karen over at Humble Quilter has a wonderful post on her survival of colon cancer! Rhonda and Karen are part of that WACKY PAC you have heard about!!! I try to get my postings done in the mornings and try to have the rule to check my emails only when I take a break...once in the morning and once in the afternoon....then before bedtime. I think you should have some kind of set rules for yourself or else I could be on here ALL DAY!!!....So "tell us" or "tell all" about your blogging habits!

I finished this "sorta" ugly orange pumpkin thingy. I just decided to use this as a practice "mini" quilt for myself. I finally machine quilted......and by the time I finished I was getting the hang of it. This is also the FIRST binding I have done. I love hand work and hand quilting, but I was kind of growling with this binding. I don't like having to have your stitches sooo close together.....it seemed to take me FOREVER! All in all it's not bad looking...you may not agree....the colors are a little undesirable, but it's alot cuter in person!

I was digging through a keepsake box Sunday and I found this. It is a picture of ME when I was in the first grade. I remember all the details of this dress I have on. The skirt part is white and it has a little poodle with a real gold chain attached..........hmmmmm.......I had to stand out in the hall 3 times that first day of school for TALKING!!!! Imagine THAT!!!

HELP....HELP.........YES HELP......

HELP....HELP......says our friend Fran over at Making Memories . She is on the search for a quilt pattern. She bought the fabric to duplicate the quilt, but then the lady would not share the pattern. What's a quilter to do.....call on our blogger friends. I thought I might do this post in hopes that someone might recognize the pattern.....so as a favor to me would you all click on her name above and scoot on over to her blog and take a look at the quilt and see if you have seen this pattern before. I think it's a pretty cute quilt and I love the colors.



I also want to thank everyone for all the WONDERFUL well wishes I received concerning the discovery of my extended family. Some of you gals out there will never know how much I appreciated your emails and comments. It's quite possible there is another sibling out there somewhere from another wife my dad may have had!! Who knows.....the last half of my life may prove to be just as interesting as the first half of my life.



I have been busy making more Christmas cottages.....and hand quilting on that baby quilt. I'm shooting for Christmas now with this quilt. My quilting frame that Mr. Brown Dirt made for me has taken some getting used to, but I think I am going to like it. To finish around the very edges I think I am going to lay it out on the kitchen table like Clare says she does. I really am LOVING this hand quilting!!!



I also spent a whole day vacuuming and cleaning the ole sewing room...WOW...fabric fuzzies and dust EVERYWHERE and on EVERYTHING. I rearranged some....moved my "stash" shelf across the room over into the corner where it will be kind of in the shadows instead of where the sun can "see" it. I moved out a dresser and put it in another room AND took out all of the cutesy nik-naks....tired of dusting that stuff!!! My room seems alot larger and spacious now.....AND CLEAN!!! So....I'm ready for ALL that holiday sewing!!!.......Guess I better get to it then!!

No Bloggin For Me Today....

Hi everybody. I have decided to spend my computer time today emailing and corresponding with my 2 half sisters I didn't know I had all my life. This all came about and my first phone call from Heather was last week. Heather lives in Texas about 4 hrs. from me. The older of the 2 is Shannon, she lives in New York. So, I think my time today would be better served by getting to know them.
TOOTLES!
Belinda

I'm Scratching My Head...

Yes......I'm scratching my head as to what this is going to be. I wanted to use some of the pumpkin/fall fabrics that I have had for a while....and since I love the maverick stars so much I started with that. I guess if I made 2 more squares it could be a table runner, or just put a back and some binding and it could be a large mat for those holiday platters to sit on. Anyway, I wasn't sure of the colors or if I even liked it at first.....but, you know....it is kind of growing on me.

Look what DH made for me yesterday! It has been raining and raining and raining here.....so, you know what that means for me. DH can't get into the fields or go much of anywhere BUT HERE. For several months now he has been trying to get me to order this fabulous 500.00 quilting frame. He is thrilled that I've shown an interest in hand quilting, thus the encouragement to purchase a nice frame. I have drug me feet.....I have done research and asked others alot of questions. I just didn't want to spend that kind of money for something I'm still not sure will be an on-going thing with me. So far I am loving the hand quilting, but I have been doing it kinda free hand like Tonya without a hoop or anything. It seems that I can control my stitches better and my stitches don't seem to be as large. The only problem was going to be about the larger quilts. I kept commenting to DH that if I just had something to help the larger quilts stay up off of me I could quilt year round and not have to worry about it being too hot in the summer. So....we came up with this. I had seen these before that others had used and was THRILLED that I had come up with something for DH to do. He was eager to do it and I could do something else besides try to keep him from making messes in the kitchen.

He forgot about how I was going to clamp it down, so he is tending to that this morning. I think it is going to work out just fine for what I need it for. He made it exact to my specs and it's petite and doesn't take up any room. We did not glue it together so I can easily take it apart and put it away or take it with me if I need to. Now all you seasoned professional hand quilters can scoff and make fun, but it's exactly what I needed and it didn't cost but 49.00. Just think of ALL the fabric I can buy now that I saved DH 450.00!!!

"Tell Me" Tuesday...

Ok......it's " tell me" or " tell all " Tuesday. The answers to last weeks question were VERY interesting. It's kinda fun AND nice to peek into others mornings and routines. I want to thank everyone for participating. So....here's this weeks question.........If you had died in your sleep last night.....would you die all over again today from embarrassment as to what you chose to wear to bed??......OK...I'll go first...I wouldn't necessarily die of embarrassment as to what I was wearing..but probable because my legs were hairy!!

(EDIT NOTE)---HEY LADIES....I DID NOT MEAN THIS QUESTION IN A NAUGHTY OR RISQUE LIGHT....some of the emails I am receiving suggest this.....most of you have gotten my intent and have responded in that fashion......this is for those who might have misunderstood.....THIS IS A "G" RATED BLOG!!!!!

As to the above picture....I tend to have most of my fabrics out on shelves and baskets. I love being able to see them, BUT.....should I be afraid of UV rays eventually fading the edges where the fabric is folded. Not to mention the "dust". AFTER ALL...this is Brown Dirt Cottage. I just thought of this the other day. Maybe they should go back into the closet. Has anyone ever had a fading problem??

Speaking of dust, it's time to do a little clean-up in the ole sewing room, and I thought before I rake all my vintage buttons off so I can dust this cake stand I'd show you how I display them. Most of the time I trade out different buttons I have that I want to enjoy, but I use it for whatever items I want to display. Once I filled it with all the yo-yos I had made.....sometimes vintage spools of thread and a mixture of various vintage sewing items I have collected through the years. I would never enjoy them if I left them stored or boxed away in the closet.......I really do enjoy ALL of my "dusty sparkles"!

AND I SURE WISH THIS LITTLE NECK WAS HERE RIGHT NOW SO I COULD BE KISSING ON IT!!

I WON...I WON.....I WON.....!!!

I'm soooo excited......look what arrived in the mail for me Saturday....all the way from Tennessee. Teresa over at diddle daddle designs put my name in for a drawing when I left a comment, and the winner.... IT WAS ME!!!..Inside the mailer was the above all wrapped and tied together with lots and lots of Christmas green ribbon, held together with the tiniest little heart clip and a nice card to top it all off......BUT when I tore open the paper....................................

THIS WAS INSIDE.......!!!! It's soooo perfect, and by that I mean in everyway possible. The creativeness, the craftsmanship ( click on picture for a close-up of Teresa's perfect stitching ) and I couldn't have picked out more perfect colors myself. I just absolutely adore this!!

And as you can see the colors just fit right in with my decor....it's as if she made this to order for me..I think the powers that be were guiding her...don't you!? Thank you SOOO much Teresa...I will treasure this always. What a phenomenal seamstress you are!!!

And in closing....I'm gonna say.............."YEW-HAW"!

"TELL ME" Tuesday....

I think it would be fun and interesting on Tuesdays "to tell" or "tell all" to various questions I would like to ask you...so, let's start.........In the first hour you are up each morning...what do you do? For example....do you have a routine.....do you have morning rituals or do you just "wing it"? For me...I get up and make coffee first thing....while that is "cooking" I line up all my vitamins for the day.....raise the blinds....get my binoculars and scope out the birds and landscape....check my email and a few blogs then straight to my sewing fabrics. I sorta "wing it" each morning, sometimes not stopping long enough to even get dressed if I am eager to get back to a new and interesting project.. So there you have it for me......tell me about you...especially share some of your quirky morning habits if you have any....I promise I won't laugh ((well maybe ))! Check out some of my progress on my hand quilting project. I am so loving these hearts!

Glutten for Punishment....

You would think that me and this baby quilt would have had enough of each other....BUT NO..not me....I had to go and finally decide to HAND quilt it. I can't help it...I love the look of hand quilting. So I kinda had a quilt-a-thon this weekend. On the 3 decorative crazy squares I decided to do some of Tonya's arcs or Baptist fans. I really do not have enough pins to tack it with...but so far I don't have any "bunches" on the back.

As you can see above I decided to just do simple quilting around each pinwheel square. So I'm going to get back to it.....wish me luck!

And I want to thank Patty for her tips on why my photos on my last post didn't enlarge. Thank you so much Patty! With a little help here and there from everyone maybe I will finally get this blogging thing down!

One of Those Weeks.....

Yes...it has been one of those weeks..that meaning NO SEWING!!! Unexpected company one day...tending to some rental property we own in another town....that we may have sold ((which is an unexpected blessing ))..lots of phone calls.......5 trips back and forth to the house.......I don't like tending to business anymore......I just want to be retired from all of that stuff and sew my quilts. So I'm going to post this quick and get back to it.
Last weekend I did manage to get another little Christmas cottage sewn up. I hung curtains in this one.
I did get to play around with the round "thang". My round "thang" might look good with some of my maverick star "thangs"???



I had a nice surprise in the mail this week. Eileen over at Eileens Attic shared some of her vintage Christmas fabric with me. This will be enough for a roof. Thanks Eileen!!

I wanted to thank Amy over at Mrs Schmenkman Quilts for finding the pattern and the designer of the chicken quilt I posted about earlier. The design is by Maggie Walker, and the pattern is the Country Journal. So anyone who would like to see the whole quilt can run over and take a look-see.

(((((( I don't know why the pictures don't enlarge when you click on them...sorry ))))))